CorkYogis entered Dragons Den on Sunday evening. This ethical yoga business with a mission to use yoga to empower women worldwide gets shot down in the Den!

CorkYogis founder Lara Sengupta, entered Dragons Den to ask for 50k in return for 15% of her yoga e-commerce store. CorkYogis has created ethical, natural cork yoga mats (one of the first of its kind in the UK) to provide yogis with a non-slip, natural surface for practice ranging from £65 - £100.

CorkYogis has a strong social side that changes lives for women in North India. CorkYogis supports education and employment of human trafficking survivors in Kolkata, India by donating to vocational training courses (for every yoga mat that is sold we donate to either a sewing course or a literacy course) and then providing jobs by employing the skilled women to make yoga mat bags.

“ Some of the Dragons liked my giving back business model but others hated it, saying I was 'confused' and that I should focus on profit first and give back when we're big enough, like Google!”

Entering the Den was probably one of the scariest things Lara has ever done, going head to head with Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones (who seemed unimpressed by it all) and even getting half an offer (of 25k) from Tej Lalvani! It was definitely a split crowd.

Lara is still going strong with CorkYogis, building it day by day and taking on some of the constructive criticism from the Dragons!

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CorkYogis founder Lara Sengupta, will enter Dragons’ Den on Sunday to ask for funding for her yoga e-commerce store. CorkYogis has created ethical, natural cork yoga mats to provide yogis with a non-slip, natural surface for practice.

CorkYogis also has a strong social side that changes lives for women in North India. CorkYogis supports education and employment of human trafficking survivors in Kolkata, India by donating to vocational training courses (for every yoga mat that is sold we donate to either a sewing course or a literacy course) and then providing jobs by employing the skilled women to make yoga mat bags.

“ I wanted to use the popularity of Yoga in the West, to give back to vulnerable communities in India. I wanted to create a giving loop”

This is one of the first social businesses that will enter the Den this season. How will the Dragons react to a business that isn't purely for profit?

This is a perfect example of the contrast between new age social entrepreneurship (favoured amongst millennials) and the more traditional profit- first businesses of an older generation.

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